AFTER he had had his breakfast Jack went to his hide. It was a lovely sunny day. He could take some fine pictures if only the eagles were there.
He wrapped the thickest rug around him and crawled in through the prickly stems of the gorse. Kiki remained outside this time.
When he was in the hollow centre of the bush Jack examined his camera to make sure that it was all right. It was. He looked through the shutter to see if he had it trained exactly on to the nest.
�Perfect!� he thought. �That young eagle appears to be asleep. I might get a good picture when it wakes up. I suppose the other birds are soaring miles high into the sky.�
It was boring, waiting for the eagle to wake up. But Jack didn�t mind. Both he and Philip knew that the ability to keep absolutely still and silent for a long time on end was essential to the study of birds and animals in their natural surroundings. So Jack settled back in the gorse-bush, and waited.
Kiki went off on errands of her own. She flew to the top of the nearest tower and looked down on the countryside. She flew down to the courtyard and looked inside a paper bag there, hoping to find a forgotten biscuit. She sat on the branch of a birch-tree, practising quietly to herself the barking noise that Button the fox-cub made. So long as Jack was somewhere near she was happy. He was safe in that gorse-bush. Kiki didn�t know why he had chosen such a peculiar resting-place, but Jack was always wise in her eyes.
The young eagle suddenly awoke and stretched out first one wing and then another. It climbed to the edge of the nest and looked out over the ledge, waiting for its parents to come back.
�Fine!� whispered Jack, and pressed the trigger of the camera to take the eagle�s picture. The young bird heard the click and cowered down at once�but the snap had been taken!
Soon the bird recovered from its fright and climbed up again. Then, with yelps, the two grown eagles came gliding down on outspread wings, and the young one greeted them gladly, spreading out its wings and quivering them.
One of the eagles had a young hare in its curved beak. It dropped it into the nest. At once the youngster covered the food with its big wings, cowered over it, and began to pull at it hungrily with its powerful beak.
Jack snapped it. All three birds heard the click and looked towards the gorse-bush suspiciously. The male eagle glared and Jack felt uncomfortable.
He hoped the bird wouldn�t pounce at the gleaming camera lens and smash it.
But Kiki saved the situation by flying down in a most comradely manner to the eagles, and saluting them in their own yelping language.
They appeared to be quite pleased to see her again, although the young eagle covered the dead hare threateningly with its wings as if to keep Kiki off.
�Open your books at page 6,� said Kiki pleasantly. The eagles looked startled. They had not yet got used to the parrot talking in human language. She barked like Button, and they looked rather alarmed.
The female eagle bent herself forward, opened her cruel beak, and made a curious snarling noise, warning Kiki to be careful. She at once spoke in eagle language again, and gave such a fine scream that both eagles were satisfied. The young one fell upon its meal and ate till it could eat no more.
Then it sank back into the big nest.
The female eagle finished the dead hare in a very short while. Jack got another wonderful snap whilst it was tearing up its food.
This time, except for an enquiring look in the direction of the click, the eagles took no notice.
�Good,� thought Jack. �They won�t mind the click soon or the gleaming eye of the camera!�
He spent a pleasant morning, using up the rest of his film, delighted to think of the wonderful pictures he could develop. He imagined them in nature magazines, with his name under them as photographer. How proud he would feel!
Kiki suddenly gave a most excited squawk, making the two grown eagles rise in the air in alarm. She flew into the air, and made for the wall that ran round the courtyard. Jack, peering through the back of his hiding-place, saw her fly right over the wall, and disappear.
�Now where�s she gone?� he thought. �I was just going to take a picture of her and the two eagles together.�
Kiki was gone for about half an hour before Jack saw her again. Then she came into the courtyard on Tassie�s shoulder! She had heard the other children coming up the hillside and had flown to meet them. They had got into the castle in the usual way, and were now looking for Jack.
The eagles soared into the air when they heard the children coming towards their crag. Jack gave a hail from the inside of his hide.
�I�m here! Hallo, it�s good to see you. Wait a sec and I�ll be out.�
He crawled out with the rug round him and went down to the others. Lucy-Ann eyed him anxiously, and was relieved to see him looking cheerful and well. So he hadn�t minded his lonely night at the castle after all.
�We�ve brought a fine dinner,� said Philip. �Mother managed to get some cooked ham and a fine fruit cake in the village.�
�Good!� said Jack, realising that he was terribly hungry. �I�ve only had biscuits and fruit for my breakfast, washed down with ginger-beer.�
�We�ve got some more ginger-beer too,� said Dinah. �Where shall we have our dinner? On the top of the tower again or where?�
�Here, I think,� said Jack, �because the light is perfect for taking pictures this morning, and if those eagles come back I want a few more snaps of them. I�ve an idea they are going to make that young one fly soon. The female eagle tried to tip it off the edge of the nest this morning.�
�Kiki came to meet us,� said Tassie. �Did you see how Button came in this morning, Jack? We left him outside, but he�s here again.�
�No, I didn�t,� said Jack. �I can�t see much from the inside of that gorse-bush, you know. We shall never find out how Button gets in�I bet it�s down an old rabbit-hole. He won�t be able to do that when he gets a bit bigger. Has he been good?�
�Not very,� said Philip, �He somehow got into the larder and gobbled up all Mother�s sausages. She wasn�t at all pleased. I can�t imagine how he can eat anything else at the moment. He must have eaten a pound and a half of sausages.�
�Greedy pig,� said Jack, giving Button half his ham sandwich. �You don�t deserve this but you�re so sweet I can�t help spoiling you.�
�It�s a pity he smells so strong,� said Dinah, wrinkling up her nose. �You won�t be able to keep him when he�s grown a bit more, Philip�he�ll smell too much.�
�That�s all you know!� said Philip. �I shall probably keep him till he dies of old age.�
�Well, you�ll have to wear a gas-mask then,� said Jack, grinning. �Another sandwich, please, Dinah. Golly, these are good.�
�What sort of a night did you have, Jack?� asked Lucy-Ann, who was sitting as close to Jack as she could.
�Oh, very good,� said Jack airily. �I woke up once and took some time to go to sleep again.�
He was determined not to say anything about his alarms and fears in the night. They seemed so silly now, in the full sunshine with people all round him.
�You should have seen the rabbits in the late evening,� he said to Philip. �You�d have loved them. They wouldn�t come to me, of course, but I daresay you�d have got them all over you! They seemed as tame as anything.�
The four children stayed with Jack till after tea. Each crept into his hide to watch the eagles. They went up to the tower again, and Jack cautiously looked round to see if there was anything different about the tower�a cigarette-end, a scrap of paper�but there was nothing at all.
�Won�t you come back with us tonight, Jack?� asked Lucy-Ann.
�Of course not,� said Jack, though secretly he felt that he would rather like to. �Is it likely, just as I�m certain that young eagle is going to learn to fly?�
�All right,� said Lucy-Ann, with a sigh. �I don�t know why I hate you being here alone in this horrid old castle, but I just do.�
�It�s not a horrid castle,� said Jack. �It�s just old and forgotten, but it�s not horrid.�
�Well, I think it is,� said Lucy-Ann. �I think horrid, wicked things have been done here in the past�and I think they might be done again in the future.�
�You�re just being silly,� said Jack, �and you�re frightening poor Tassie. It�s only an old empty place forgotten for years, with nobody in it at all except me and the eagles, bats and rabbits.�
�It�s time to go,� said Philip, getting up. �We brought you another rug, Jack, in case you felt cold. Coming to see us off at the window?�
�Yes, of course,� said Jack, and they all went inside the castle, their footsteps echoing on the stone floor. They went to the room where the plank reached to the window-sill, and one by one they got across.
Lucy-Ann called a farewell to Jack.
�Thank you for waving your shirt to me last night!� she called. �And oh, Jack, I saw you flashing your torch from the tower later on, too! I was in bed, but I was awake and I saw the flash of the torch three or four times. It was nice of you to do that. I was glad to see it and to know you were awake too!�
�Come on, Lucy-Ann, for goodness� sake!� called Dinah. �You know Mother said we weren�t to be late tonight.�
�All right, I�m coming,� said Lucy-Ann, and slid down the creepers to the ground. Everyone called good-bye and then they were gone.
But Jack was left feeling most puzzled and uncomfortable! So there had been someone in the tower last night flashing a torch! He hadn�t dreamt it or imagined it. It was true.
�Lucy-Ann saw it, so that proves I wasn�t mistaken as I thought,� said the boy to himself as he went back to the courtyard. �It�s terribly mysterious. That clanking I heard and the splashing must have been real too. There is someone else here�but who�and why?�
He wished now that he had told the others the happenings in the night. But it was too late, they were gone. Jack now longed to be gone with them!
Suppose he heard noises again and saw flashes? He didn�t like it. It was weird and eerie and altogether unpleasant.
�Shall I go after the others and join them?� he thought. �No, I won�t. I�ll wait and try and find out who�s here. Fancy Lucy-Ann seeing those flashes! I am glad she told me!�